The holidays are a hard time to feel bankrupt, either financially or emotionally. The wallet is supposed to be fat and heavy, and the emotions full to over flowing. Any kind of bankruptcy is viewed as failure, adding to the struggle of refunding and stockpiling energy. We lie defenseless and broken, far too vulnerable for holiday mayhem and frivolity.

The power in being bankrupt, is that what is left when all is lost, is true essence. This alchemical substance of bare bones is our success. It is our failure. In their nitty-gritty is the formula of the next success. In that belief lies the power to refund Grace.

To rebound and fill the coffers, to reignite the sizzle, becomes an unknown healing journey. Before we can feel joyous abundance, or grab the sword to cry, “No Surrender,” we must put our broken bits back into place. Some of that difficulty is that they do not adhere in the old way. They need a stronger glue that will contain a transformed vessel, one of wider perception, deeper resolution, and greater courage.

I am on intimate terms with the gifts of failure. I have failed far more than I’ve succeeded. But in this process I have begun to embody the empowering practices of: faith, stubbornness, humor, resoluteness, loyalty, kindness, and awareness. Plus I know where and how to punch the reset button. When depressed, it doesn’t matter if you know how, it’s finding some ineffable spirit to help you punch in. I’m waiting for her, feeling she may arrive with the ‘re-set’ of the New Moon.

Living with the ebb and flow of Lunar cycles is an emotionally intelligent reminder of renewal. Standing under an invisible New Moon, when she is bankrupt of light, watching her show up, no matter what, then observe her evolving to take on new light, transforming, and re-discovering herself as she travels vast landscapes of the sky, tells me I will once again grow radiant. My cycle this holiday will not glitter and glam as before, but with time, when the Moon grows full, I shall feel my resilient light walking out into a new landscape, willing to answer the unknown.

Astrology and Yoga of Transformation

Neptunian Pirates & The Scurvy Crew Dec. 5~12

We held our monthly Salon last night to try and discuss what this election offers, and demands of our inner journey, not the politics of right and wrong within society. We failed rather miserably, getting lost in myriad opinions of what was wrong, and who was ‘wronger.’ Drowning in a multi-layered sea of realities is part of Neptune’s ‘learning, and looms large with its square to Saturn, 2011-2025. Another Salon-issue was trying to sort out feelings of friends and families who had ‘betrayed’ us by voting for ‘the other.’ The great divide was so divisive, we could not leap across and deal with the issue as a political/social event. It had become a personal demolition derby. Some of this magnification comes from the tail-flicking of the Uranus/Pluto square that kicked the world into its present upheaval. (2012-2015)

Indeed, it is a time of being lost, destabilized, and angry. And God knows we swim with lots of bad of company. Last night’s questions remain yet unanswered; What can I do to find inner resolution and compassion for a world I am furious with? How do I stop pointing the finger at you, and rotate it 180 degrees toward me, and my disowned shadow? How can I become the Captain of my own ship, despite the raging seas, broken compass, and scurvy crew~or, perhaps because of that? We are in deep Neptunian seas for a long time. We are at the end of the Piscean age, and have not yet found our bearings for the Aquarian Age.

Remember the opening phrase from Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.” This was back in 1859, during the 20 years that Neptune last swam through Pisces. (1847-1862) Part of our incredulity and despair is that not much has transformed. Not nearly what we hoped and thought had changed. The Tale of Two Cities took place just before the French Revolution, as they struggled to find a way through the Neptunian incoherence of poverty and hopelessness.

There is good news. There is always the other half; the choice to be made. The other half of Neptunian delusion and illusion is spirit and oneness. Her sea-changes offer multitude-means to come together. Last time Neptune was in Pisces, railroads, photography, migrations from starvation, and the industrial revolution made us clash and grow. Now we are learning to manage the technology of social media, and its lack of truth or consequences. We are again frightened because old boundaries, and safety nets are no longer in place. We can’t go back, and we can’t see or understand the future. I say it’s time to become a Pirate and take to the seas with our favorite scurvy crew!

*My thanks to Rich Humbert at Celestial Weather, rich@celestialweather.com for offering the long view of planetary influences and tides. Such an intelligent ‘weather-eye.’

SCHEDULE

Dec 7th~5:15~ Level I-II AND 7:00 ~Level II-III Vinyasa Flow evening at Laughing Dog Yoga, 159 Linden st. Wellesley. Remembering and releasing the destruction of Pearl Harbor, then Nagasaki. Moving from a past of pain toward healing, over and over.

Note: Holiday Collection bowl in Classes: Please add to our gold bowl of donations. Money going to ‘Humanity Crew Org.’ which has been on the ground in Greece the past three years. This is a personal gift for many of us who know Becky Thompson who has been in Greece helping Humanity.